Doctor promising "experimental" treatment has run afoul of U.S. authorities

An osteopathic doctor offering an experimental stem cell treatment for Anderson County Sheriff's Deputy Vick Wooten has faced difficulty practicing his therapies in the United States.

Dr. Mitchell J. Ghen, now head clinician with Eden Laboratories in Belize, treated patients with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, with stem cell transplants at the Institute of Cellular Medicine in Dunwoody, Georgia in 2003.

He left the country after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration raided his offices for "not seeking the agency's approval and allegedly overselling the promise of the procedure," according to a March 29, 2003, Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta would neither confirm nor deny any investigation into Dr. Ghen.

Jan Beck, president of Star Capital Corp., which has a significant investment in Eden Laboratories, the clinic that would treat Mr. Wooten, said the investigation into Dr. Ghen's clinic was closed without any findings from the FDA.

"The stem cell blood bank was under investigation, and he was one of their customers," Mr. Beck said. "Dr. Ghen had a legal opinion at the time that he treatments were not subject to FDA approval and the investigation into him stemmed from the investigation into the blood bank."

The doctor also had disciplinary action taken against him by the North Carolina Medical Board for practicing medicine without a North Carolina license.

Dr. Ghen voluntarily withdrew his North Carolina license in 2004. Dr. Ghen interpreted spinal ultrasound tests for patients of a doctor in North Carolina, which the medical board viewed as practicing medicine in the state without a license.In 1993, the Florida Board of Medicine charged Dr. Ghen with "gross or repeated malpractice or the failure to practice osteopathic medicine with that level of care, skill and treatment which is recognized by a reasonably prudent similar osteopathic physician as being acceptable under similar conditions and circumstances," for failing to obtain a consultation in a timely manner in the case of an 8-month-old infant with meningitis.

Although Dr. Ghen claimed to currently hold licenses in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, in his Florida license application, his licenses in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina have lapsed.

Dr. Ghen did not immediately return phone calls for comment.

Mr. Wooten's chiropractor, Dr. Mack Durham, said he was not aware of the allegations against Dr. Ghen, but he said he knew the doctor was not allowed to do the procedures in the United States.

"I know that the work that he is doing in Belize has not been cleared for the U.S. That's why the work is being done out of the country. There's a lot of work that can't be done here because of the political climate," he said. Miriam Wooten, Mr. Wooten's wife, said she did not know about the actions against Dr. Ghen. But after reviewing them, she said they didn't matter.

"I have thought about it, and I have prayed about it. Sometimes it's like you pray to God to send you help, and a boat goes by, and you ask God ‘Why didn't you send help?' and he says ‘I sent you that boat, why didn't you get on it?'" she said.